Imagine a seamless shopping experience where AI agents can accurately match your queries with real products, providing rich product cards with images, prices, and reviews. This is now a reality thanks to the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard launched by Google and Shopify in January.

A live demo has been created to showcase the consumer-facing side of UCP, allowing users to type natural language queries and see how an AI agent can:

• Match intent to real products from a live catalog
• Present rich cards with images, real-time pricing, ratings, and stock information
• Provide direct purchase links, eliminating the need for marketplaces

This demo highlights the potential of AI-mediated shopping when it works properly, compared to when AI agents are forced to guess from scraped page content. As part of a project to make WooCommerce stores UCP-ready, this technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we shop online.

With backing from major players like Google, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa, the question remains: will this technology live up to its promise and become as big as its supporters think? Share your thoughts on the future of agentic commerce and the impact of UCP on the retail industry.

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